Catching Hell

by D. B. Sieders

  Of course, my roomies didn’t let it go. Roice shook his head and offered me a wide-eyed gaze of mock surprise. “Didn’t he live in your closet when you were kids?”

  Lacey choked on a mouthful of chips, eyes watering as she recovered. “That hot guy lived in your closet? I thought you said he wasn’t taken.”

  I downed my shot, sucked on a delightfully sour slice of lime, and immediately poured another. “He did once live in my closet—long story—and he’s not taken. Not by me anyway.” It killed me to say it. Thank God for tequila. Flirting by text aside, I had no claim on D.

  Did I want a claim? I missed the friendship. Losing my best friend had left a gaping hole in my heart that I had never fully filled. And sure, I wanted his hot bod. Who wouldn’t? But to be honest, I wanted much more than his body. I’d come to that uncomfortable realization during that tender little moment in his car last night. It brought back a lot of memories and stirred emotions I’d buried years ago. But I had too many abandonment issues, some of them thanks to him. I still couldn’t trust him.

  And lack of trust was a deal breaker for any kind of serious relationship, working or otherwise.

  I did not want to have this conversation now. It would ruin my image as a crack-the-whip, hard-ass manager.

  Mara walked over to me, eyeing me with a mixture of curiosity and not a little sympathy. Of course she understood my dilemma. No way she could’ve assumed the form of D without seeing into my mind and heart, knowing deep down I wanted and needed him. She took the tequila bottle out of my hand and settled it back on the bar, but not before I took another shot of liquid courage.

  “We’re not here to talk about Jinx’s past relationships.” Mara’s sultry voice and gorgeous form cast a spell on the room. Her true form, or what I assumed was her true form, was beautiful, but in a strange, generic way like a Barbie doll but with reasonable proportions. It probably made it easier to assume the shape to fit her target’s desires. “We’re here to help her stop the demon lord Belial from starting a hell realm war.”

  She led me to the head of the table, her hand silky smooth in mine, and sat me down in the executive chair before filling a plate full of my favorite munchie combinations, with just the right ratio of chip to salsa, sour cream, and guacamole. Looked like she’d learned more about me than just my taste in men after our make out session.

  “Wow, Mara.” Heat crept over my face, and I squirmed. I wasn’t used to being cared for. It was weird and more than a little uncomfortable. No worries. The alcohol would take care of that soon enough. “Thanks, but you don’t have to serve me.”

  She laughed, the sound like an ancient, sensual melody. “It’s the least I can do. You saved my life.”

  Roice and Boice had the decency to stop teasing me and sit down. Not that I minded anymore. With three shots of tequila and a near-empty stomach, I’d soon be feeling no pain. I’d just created the perfect bite of nachos when I realized everyone was staring at me.

  “Wha?” I said, my mouth full.

  Trinity rolled her eyes. “You’re supposed to be holding a meeting.”

  “Oh, right.” I wiped my hands on my napkin, dropping it twice before succeeding. “The meeting is now in session.”

  Lacey raised her hand. Seriously? How could she have a question when I’d just called the meeting to order? I thought about ignoring her, but Roice raised his hand, too. Naturally, his brother joined in. Trinity and Alexi were the only employees getting a gold star for behavior after this little gathering.

  “Yes, Agent Green?” I used my official voice, as befitted my title as temporary boss lady.

  “What about Dominic?”

  “What about him?” I asked irritably. “He’s late. He can catch up when he gets here.”

  A deep, accented voice chimed in. “Technically, you’ve started the meeting early. He has five more minutes.”

  Oh, right. I’d forgotten. Damned tequila. Okay, I would so not be giving Alexi a gold star now.

  I sighed and rolled my eyes, making the room spin along with my head. Maybe that third shot had been a bad idea. I pulled out my mobile phone. Yup. Alexi was right. D had four and a half more minutes to show up. With a shrug, I stuffed another bite of tortilla chip paradise into my mouth, motioning for everyone else to dig in.

  “Would anyone like some vodka?” Alexi asked, hopeful. The only thing the man took any obvious pride in was his homemade hooch. It was a very healthy step toward self-confidence.

  Mara flashed him a brilliant smile. “I would love some.”

  Alexi blushed, clearly awestruck by the succubus. She was a knockout, of course. But it was more than simply lust or longing. Alexi’s smile held genuine gratitude. He’d appreciated the courtesy. Poor guy didn’t get much appreciation, or he hadn’t until he’d joined our demon-hunting gang.

  I’d have to think on the complexities of human-demon relations later. When I was sober. And when a demon lord wasn’t out to get me.

  A knock sounded at the door about a minute after the meeting had been set to begin, bringing me out of my daydream and back to the staff meeting I was supposed to be running. I needed to get a grip. Lives were at stake—namely mine, not to mention my family’s. Lacey and Mara practically fell over themselves in a fight to answer the door, but I beat them to it. Barely. I was having a little trouble walking. I opened the door and looked up into the face of the demon boy I’d once saved and who’d saved me in turn, before he left.

  D had grown into quite the man, but I caught a glimpse of the frightened, lost boy he’d once been. Maybe it was the tequila, or maybe it was the realization that most of my memories of him had been good. In point of fact, they were the best memories I had.

  “Where have you been?” I asked in a small voice. That was the alcohol talking. Not my wounded heart.

  He smiled and then leveled an intense gaze on me as if reading my thoughts. I’d never been so acutely aware of my heartbeat, the quickness of my breath, or my weakened knees. I didn’t get weak in the knees. I wasn’t that kind of girl.

  Except, apparently, with D.

  He took my hand and gave me a look of such sincerity, laced with agony and yearning I didn’t understand or quite believe, that I had to look away. He put two fingers under my chin and forced me to meet his gaze.

  “I’m sorry I’m late.” I didn’t think he was just talking about the meeting.

  He clearly wanted to say more, but my butthead roommates had to go and spoil the moment by yelling, “About time,” and “Don’t company rules apply to consultants?”

  After making a mental note to have Trinity change the Wi-Fi password without telling them, I turned and said, “Everyone, this is Dominic, our consultant. Dominic, this is everyone. You’ve met Mara and Lacey Green. The big guy over there is Alexi Volkov. He’s one hell of a demon tracker and a pretty decent bartender.”

  Alexi blushed, and I felt bad for about a nanosecond. Then I remembered that one of my missions in life was to get Alexi to see what a great human being he was. I’d probably have to beat him over the head before he believed it, but I wasn’t above desperate measures.

  I pointed to Trinity and said, “That’s Trinity Jones. She’s the brains behind the operation—knows demon languages, customs, and demon law.” Trinity smiled. She knew herself and her worth, and I was glad of it, but I also made a point of giving credit where credit was due.

  Rolling my eyes and gesturing to the twin asshats with whom I lived, I said, “And these clowns are Roice and Boice. They’re the techies.”

  Dominic eyed them curiously. “You’re both pure demons.”

  Roice nodded, giving him a once-over. “Takes one to know one.”

  Dominic smirked. “I’ve heard of you guys. Did you really cause the Great Northeast blackout of ’65?”

  Boice smiled. “Yup. And the NYC blackout of ’77—”

  “And the Northeast 2003,” Roice added.

  “Yes, yes, and proud we all are of your ninja level pranks.” I cut
them off before they really got on a roll. They were a little too proud of their work. “Now that we’re all here, I’m calling this meeting to order.”

  Settling back at the head of the conference table, I kept an eye on D while running down what I’d gotten from Murkowski, as well as what Lacey and I had learned from Cooper the summoner. Judging from the size of the plate he filled, D’s appetite was still healthy. He gave Alexi two thumbs-up after sampling the vodka and took his seat next to Mara.

  My fists clenched, and something thick seemed to lodge itself in my throat. They sat too close, and Mara’s hand was too close to D’s leg when she leaned forward.

  Clearing my throat, I said, “We know which portal Mephisto used, we know at least one summoner who helped thanks to Dominic, and we know there’s at least one other entity who helped, and she’s likely a human woman since she was able to cross the threshold to Cooper’s portal and disable his guard dog. There may be two, or more. What do we have on Belial?” I asked.

  The twins turned their gazes to Trinity. They’d all been working on research, but naturally made her their spokeswoman. Smart move. She was the only tracker in the group who’d acquired the assistance of a demon voluntarily. After summoning Fidria the Unknowable during an advanced ritual—she’d done her homework and nailed the rites and incantations—she’d negotiated with the powerful demon keeper of knowledge to teach her all about the hell realm. He’d been so impressed by her scholarly drive and tenacity that he’d sent her a personal demon to assist in her studies.

  That immaterial demon had become her personal spirit guide and made her the envy of every demon tracker, summoner, and hell realm visitor to the earth realm.

  Yeah, she was that good. I just wondered about the price she’d had to pay for such a valuable resource. Demons didn’t work for free.

  Clearing her throat, Trinity began what would no doubt be a lengthy dissertation on the demon lord.

  That woman loved to lecture.

  “Belial, also known as Belhor or Beliar among other names, is known as the Wicked One in Hebrew texts and is often confused with Satan. He’s not, actually.” She looked around the table, probably to make sure we were engaged and paying attention. She was such a good speaker. I should really take notes.

  Then again, it was much easier stealing notes from my roomies.

  “He’s neither the absolute nor a primal emanation, but he is a powerful lord in the hell realm.”

  That was reassuring. Primal emanations were supposedly capable of unleashing hell on earth with the demonic magic. On a scale of biblical plagues to natural disasters on steroids, these demons made tempters look like garden gnomes. They’d been banished from the earth realm long ago after a truce between the hell realm and celestial realm and were most definitely not allowed to travel to earth through portals, or so we’d been told by the boss and Barbatos.

  The absolute, big baddy Lucifer himself was a myth as far as any of us demon-hunters knew. Good thing, since demon lords were more than bad enough.

  I nodded and Trinity continued. “He’s painted by Milton and The Bible as the evil demon of lies, but character assassinations aside, he did lead a war against the Sons of Light—angels, or more accurately, residents of the celestial realm—by the Sons of Darkness.”

  Boice snorted, no doubt testy about the reputation of his fellow demons. “Can we skip the bullshit and get to the part that matters?”

  Trinity gave him a stare that reminded me a little too much of my third-grade teacher, who was, in fact, demon possessed. “Don’t get your panties in a wad, B. Background first.”

  Roice grumbled, “Fucking angels wrote the history books as propaganda. And they accuse us of lying.”

  I sighed, hating to do it, but… “I’m going to have to agree with Boice, just this once. Can we get to the part about why he wants to steal Hannah and recruit me for his latest round of hell realm war games?”

  Trinity gave me a similar look, but then, after a few eye rolls, she shuffled her stack of notes and got to the good part. A flash of red shone in her gaze before she spoke. Her personal demon assistant was in on the research too. “After a long and illustrious career as a hell realm general, he got into politics. Nothing unusual there, but he apparently ran afoul of Duke Astaroth, another powerful hell realm leader, which led to his first failed hell realm rebellion a few millennia ago.”

  Wow. I totally needed to incorporate words like afoul into my vocabulary. It sounded impressive.

  D surprised me by speaking up. “What got him in trouble with Astaroth?” His voice was low and guttural, almost a growl.

  A great question, but the way D asked it gave me pause. Why was he so interested in the history of this demon lord? I made a mental note to follow up on that observation later.

  Trinity beamed at him, giving her hair a little flip. Yeah, she wasn’t immune to D’s charms, either, though I suspected she was more impressed with his question. She loved being the professor.

  “Aside from being a rival for power in the hell realm, Astaroth is said to have taken issue with Belial’s skill with magic. Much more powerful than the kind used by ordinary citizens of the hell realm or tempters who still inhabit earth. Rumor had it he was dabbling in the kind of magic known only to primal emanations. Naturally, rival demon lords wanted to stop him—or steal his magic for their own use. It seemed to be your garden-variety demon pissing contest on the surface, but I dug a little deeper and found something more interesting.”

  I liked interesting, especially when “interesting” could help me save my family, not to mention my own neck.

  Trinity paused as everyone sat on the edges of their seats in rapt anticipation. Except for Roice. I swear that demon boy had the attention span of a gnat. I threw a wadded-up tortilla wrapper at him to get his attention. Did I know how to hold a meeting or what?

  “Hey.” He rubbed his head and scowled at me. I’d nailed him right between the eyes.

  “Two points for Jinx.” I prepared another tortilla wrapper ball in case I had to go for round two. “Next time I’ll hit you with a Molotov cocktail. We’re talking about my life here.”

  Lacey snorted. “Your staff meetings are much more fun than the usual.”

  “Open bar, babe,” I said, taking a little bow as best I could while seated. I nearly fell out of my chair.

  “Perhaps you should switch to water,” Alexi suggested.

  “No way.” I poured another shot from the bottle I’d secretly stashed under the table. “I need this for medicinal purposes. It’s helping with the whole anxiety over my impending doom thing.”

  “Anyway,” Trinity said, loudly. “As I was saying, I found something interesting after reviewing the grimoire and a few other sources my demon brought from the hell realm. It seems Belial was less rebel and more reformer, depending on whose side you’re on. He wanted to improve relations with the earth realm and celestial realm, set the record straight on demon culture and history, that sort of thing.”

  “Amen to that,” Boice muttered.

  “But wait. There’s more.” Trinity held up an index finger. “There are others who claim that the reformation angle was a ruse to gain more power and renew war with the celestial realm. Once he amassed enough demon magic and power, he planned to attack. Other accounts suggest he was dabbling in celestial magic. It would have given him advantage in negotiations or battle.”

  That was interesting, but still didn’t explain his interest in me.

  “Which account is accurate? And what does any of it have to do with me?”

  Trinity smiled. I would be getting a gold star, too. “It may not be one or the other. He could want both. As far as where you come in, I have a couple of theories, but nothing solid.”

  I spread my hands wide and spun in my chair. Spinning was a mistake. After I stopped seeing double, I said, “I’m all ears, girlfriend.”

  She scowled, clicking her nails on the table and waiting. For what, I had no idea. I was paying attention.<
br />
  “Don’t ever call me girlfriend again.”

  Oops. I’d meant it as a term of endearment, affection even. “My apologies,” I said. “I’d be most interested in hearing any theories you have to offer, my esteemed colleague.”

  D seemed to be interested as well. He leaned forward in his seat, hands on the table and fierce gaze fixed on Trinity. Boice remained interested, too, and no wonder. I wouldn’t be surprised if he left us to join Belial’s rebellion. Anything in the name of fighting negative demon species stereotypes.

  I wasn’t unsympathetic. I just had bigger fish to fry.

  Trinity said, “Your personal demon has a long-standing relationship with you. She’s been in the earth realm for long enough to have plenty of experience with modern humans—something Belial might find of value if he wants to open formal relations with humanity and recruit allies against the celestial realm. That’s one possibility.”

  I didn’t buy it. Plenty of tempters had been around earth for much longer. They’d be easier to recruit or manipulate. They’d also be easier to reach and control than Hannah.

  “Another possibility is your demon’s power,” Trinity said. “We don’t know what she is, but we know some of what she can do. Any general would find those skills valuable. She might be an untapped well of demon magic. It fits with what Mephisto said about you not knowing what you had within you. Maybe Hannah is some sort of weapon or power source.”

  “So he wants Hannah and not me.” It made sense. Mephisto had tried to separate us, to pull Hannah away from me. And in spite of my intrinsic coolness and great ass, I didn’t have any superpowers that might attract the attention of a demon lord. A few combat skills? Sure. Demon-level combat skills without Hannah? Not so much.

  Except for that strange power that had bubbled up from somewhere inside me back in the alley and in the boss’s office, but I didn’t even know what it was, let alone how to control it.

  Trinity studied me. “Don’t underestimate yourself,” she said. “We don’t know everything about you, either. Most humans couldn’t host such a powerful demon for so long and live to tell the tale. It’s practically unheard of. Most long-term possessions end with the demon consuming the human host’s soul, or with the demon wasting away if it refuses to feed, which is rare. There’s clearly something about you and your relationship with Hannah that’s helped you survive, thrive even, while hosting a demon.”